Yield and quality improvement in Bt cotton through foliar application of trifloxystrobin and tebuconazole

In agriculture, fungi can cause serious damage, resulting in critical losses of yield, quality and profit. Fungicides help in reducing the damage caused by fungus, reduce the yield loss and play a major role in quality improvement. The present investigation was carried out at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to evaluate the influence of trifloxystrobin 50% + tebuconazole 25% (Nativo 75WG) on the yield and quality improvement on Bunny hybrid Bt cotton.  Nativo 75WG was applied on the leaves of cotton plants at 40-60 (DAS) and 60-80 (DAS) at the concentration of 250, 300, 350 g/ha and Carbendazim @ 500 g/ha.  The observations recorded were related to yield and quality attributes in all treatments. The application of Nativo @ 300 g/ha showed a significant increase in boll weight (4.86 g), lint yield per boll (3.86 g boll-1) and lint per plant (138.48 g plant -1) than other treatments. With respect to seed cotton yield and harvest index (0.37 %), the Nativo @ 300 g/ha registered a higher yield (20.2 %) and HI than control under the irrigated situation. Foliar application of treatments during the flowering stage (40-60 DAS) and boll formation stages (60-80 DAS) had increased the quality parameters such as fiber length (2.5% staple length, 50 % staple length) and fiber strength. Further, the foliar spray of  Nativo @ 300 g/ha applied to bunny hybrid Bt cotton had resulted in a higher yield (2920.15 kg ha-1) due to an increase in leaf area index, greenness of leaf and higher dry matter production of the plant

Long-Term Optical Flux and Colour Variability in Quasars

We have used optical V and R band observations from the Massive Compact Halo Object (MACHO) project on a sample of 59 quasars behind the Magellanic clouds to study their long term optical flux and colour variations. These quasars, lying in the redshift range of 0.2 < z < 2.8 and having apparent V band magnitudes between 16.6 and 20.1 mag, have observations ranging from 49 to 1353 epochs spanning over 7.5 yr with frequency of sampling between 2 to 10 days. All the quasars show variability during the observing period. The normalised excess variance (Fvar) in V and R bands are in the range 0.2% < FVvar < 1.6% and 0.1% < FRvar < 1.5% respectively. In a large fraction of the sources, Fvar is larger in the V band compared to the R band. From the z-transformed discrete cross-correlation function analysis, we find that there is no lag between the V and R band variations. Adopting the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach, and properly taking into account the correlation between the errors in colours and magnitudes, it is found that the majority of sources show a bluer when brighter trend, while a minor fraction of quasars show the opposite behaviour. This is similar to the results obtained from another two independent algorithms, namely the weighted linear least squares fit (FITEXY) and the bivariate correlated errors and intrinsic scatter regression (BCES). However, the ordinary least squares (OLS) fit, normally used in the colour variability studies of quasars, indicates that all the quasars studied here show a bluer when brighter trend. It is therefore very clear that the OLS algorithm cannot be used for the study of colour variability in quasars

Molecular characterization of ten mango cultivars using simple sequences repeat (SSR) markers

Simple sequence repeats (SSRs) which is an efficient genetic markers for comparative genome mapping can be helpful in the classification of genotypes, germplasm resource utilization and breeding programmes. Therefore, the present study was conducted to show genetic variation and investigate inter-relationship between ten mango genotypes. Twenty (20) SSR markers were tested with 10 genotypes: Kalepad, Neelum, Swarnarekha, Alphonso Rumani, Sendura, Banganapalli, Himayuddin, Mulgoa and Bangalora. The genomic DNA was extracted from the leaf samples using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the DNA isolated from 10 mango genotypes with 20 SSR primers produced a total of 240 amplified products, of which 184 were polymorphic and 56 monomorphic. The sizes of the alleles detected ranged from 120 to 369 bp. SSR markers were highly polymorphic with an average of 2.70 alleles per primers. SSRs gave moderate values of polymorphic information content (PIC) range of 0.320 to 0.774. The amplified products varied between 2 (LMMA 1, 5, 7, 12, 16, MiSHRS-1 and MiSHRS-37) to 3 and 4 (LMMA 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 MiSHRS-4, 48, 18, 39 and LMMA 8) bands per primer. We obtained moderate degree of genetic diversity, with Jaccard’s similarity co-efficient values ranging from 0.075 between cluster I and II to 0.285 between clusters II and III. The dendrogram generated from the unweighted pair group arithmetic average (UPGMA) cluster analysis broadly placed 10 mango cultivars into three major clusters at co-efficient similarity of 0.65. The cluster size varied from 1 to 6 and cluster III was the largest cluster comprising of six cultivars followed by cluster II possessing three and cluster I possessing one variety. Cluster I had the highest diverse cultivars namely, Kalepad, Neelum and Swarnarekha. Cluster II included cultivar of Alphonso. Cluster III contain the cultivars viz., Rumani, Sendura, Bangnapalli, Himayuddin, Mulgoa and Bangalora. Unique fingerprints were identified in the cultivars. The unique fingerprints size ranged from LMMA-8 (257-270 bp), LMMA-11 (232- 245 bp) to MiSHRS 39 (340-369 bp). The tendency of clustering among mango cultivars revealed that they have strong affinity towards further breeding programme.Key words: Cultivars, genetic diversity, mango, simple sequence repeats (SSR)

Synergistic effects of squalene and polyunsaturated fatty acid concentrate on lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status in isoprenaline-induced myocardial infarction in rats

We have studied the synergistic effects of squalene and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA concentrate) on isoprenaline-induced infarction in rats with respect to changes in the levels of plasma diagnostic marker enzymes and myocardial antioxidant defense system. Intraperitoneal injection of isoprenaline caused a significant elevation in the levels of diagnostic marker enzymes; alanineaminotranferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine phosphokinase (CPK) in plasma of experimental rats. There was a significant rise in the level of lipidperoxidation with concomitant decline in the level of reduced glutathione (GSH) and in the activities of glutathione-dependent antioxidant enzymes; glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and glutathione-Stransferase (GST), and antiperoxidative enzymes; superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in heart tissue. Combined supplementation of squalene and PUFA concentrate significantly prevented the isoprenaline-induced elevations in the levels of diagnostic marker enzymes in plasma of experimental groups of rats. A tendency to counteract the isoprenaline induced lipid peroxidation was also noticed. Their combined administration maintained the level of GSH and the activities of glutathione-dependent antioxidant enzymes and antiperoxidative enzymes at near normalcy. The results of the present study indicated that the combined administration of squalene and PUFA concentrate exerted significantly better cardio-protection against isoprenaline-intoxication as compared to that of per secondsupplementation

Standardization of optimum melatonin concentration for drought tolerance at germination and early development stage in rice (CO-54)

Drought stress poses a serious threat to production and nutritional security. In recent years, foliar application of plant growth regulators (PGRs) and nutrients are increasingly employed to overcome physiological constraints resulting in enhanced crop production. Melatonin is a new biomolecule recently found to ameliorate the effect of biotic and abiotic stresses in crop plants. Hence, the present experiment was conducted to assess the optimum concentration of melatonin to mitigate the adverse effect of drought stress on germination and growth components in rice variety CO-54. In this experiment, PEG-mediated drought stress (-0.5 MPa) was imposed with different concentrations of melatonin (at doses of 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 µM) seed treatments. Together, these results indicated that 200 µM melatonin-treated seeds showed a greater germination percentage (60%), root length (12.23cm), shoot length (8.23cm), fresh and dry weight (0.126g and 0.095g), high vigor index (1910.22), promptness index (64.83), and germination stress index (100) respectively. The result of this experiment provides a shred of strong evidence suggesting that seed treatment of 200 µM melatonin could be considered an effective technique for mitigating the detrimental effects of drought by promoting seed germination and thereby increasing the growth components of seedlings in rice. The study demonstrates that melatonin can shield rice seedlings from the effects of drought stress

Tsunami impacts on shallow groundwater and associated water supply on the East Coast of Sri Lanka: a post-tsunami well recovery support initiative and an assessment of groundwater salinity in three areas of Batticaloa and Ampara Districts

Groundwater, Aquifers, Salinity, Natural disasters, Water supply, Drinking water, Wells, Rehabilitation, Mosquitoes, Disease vectors, Environmental Economics and Policy, Health Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Degree days and demography of Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on maize at different temperatures

The temperature has a direct effect on the activity of insect pests and their developmental rate. The increasing temperature could profoundly influence the population dynamics, life cycle, length of reproduction, fecundity, and longevity. In the present study, the impact of different temperatures (32, 33, 34, 35 and 36°C) on the degree days and population fitness of Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith) was evaluated under artificial conditions. The results showed that for S. frugiperda, an average of 690.38 degree days was required to complete the total life span. The total larval developmental time, pupal duration and adult longevity required 237.38, 184.47 and 228.10 degree days, respectively. The life history data of S. frugiperda were analysed by using TWOSEX-MSChart. An increase in temperature reduced the developmental time of S. frugiperda at age x and stage j. The highest reproductive value (vx) of S. frugiperda was obtained at 34°C (600 individuals per day) and was found to be reduced at a further increase in temperature of 35°C (260 individuals per day) and 36°C (120 individuals per day). These results signify the improved fitness of S. frugiperda with increasing temperature levels, and the degree days help to predict the development pattern of S. frugiperda based on heat accumulation

Analysis of Predictive Factors Influencing Early Patency in Adult Autogenous Arterio Venous Accesses

Abstract: Arteriovenous(AV